Perennial, compact subshrub, 7-10 cm tall with very short internodes. Leaves sessile, base petiole-like with spines 3-7 mm long; lamina oblanceolate, 40-60(-90) x 8-12 mm, often with yellow-green appearance, puberulent with strigose to spreading short hairs, also with subsessile glandular hairs; apex acute, base attenuate, margin undulate, dentate-spinose, spines rigid, 3-5(-8) mm long, yellow to brown. Inflorescences semi-dense, cylindrical, subsessile, 45-55 mm long, (8-)10-13 mm in diameter. Bracts broadly obovate to wedge-shaped, (15-)20-30 mm long (including spines), lamina 8-11 mm long, base obtuse to attenuate; lamina and spines glabrous to puberulent with short white, spreading, hairs and isolated subsessile glandular hairs abaxially, silky-hairy adaxially; middle and upper bracts ending in 5(-7) primary spines; central primary spine often compound with one pair of marginal secondary spines, often simple; lateral primary spines very often with 1 long basal secondary spine (shorter than primary spine) on side facing central primary spine and a short marginal secondary spine on opposite side; spines divergent in flower, spreading to recurved in fruit. Bracteoles linear, 8(-12) mm long, silky-hairy adaxially. Calyx brown-tipped with dorsal sepal ovate, acuminate, 13-15(-16) mm long, glabrous abaxially, silky-hairy adaxially, 7-9(-11)-veined; ventral sepal ovate, 12-13(-15) mm long, glabrous abaxially, silky-hairy adaxially, 5-7(-9)-veined; lateral sepals 8-9(-10) mm long, glabrous abaxially, silky-hairy adaxially, especially towards base. Corolla lilac to purple with lemon-yellow throat, 25-27 x 10-12 mm, tube 8(-9) mm long, central lobe as wide as long, constricted at the base, emarginate. Filaments 7-8 mm long, glandular; anthers beige, 3 mm long. Style covered with glandular hairs at the base. Capsules 8-9 x 3 mm. Seed 3 x 3 mm.
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